history
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Clowning Around
It’s confusing, being an “Italian American” visiting the homeland for the first time. The culinary staples of your childhood are only available in the most touristy trattorie, and it’s honestly difficult to find that superlative meal you were promised. You… Continue reading
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An Ambiguous Defense
One of the weirdest things I learned as a Boy Scout is that concealment in the dark is relative. That is, if you’re trying to hide in a shadow, it doesn’t actually matter how dark the spot you’re standing in… Continue reading
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Memorial Day, 2024
Two and a half years out, my writing has started to stall. There are only so many big ideas one can develop to the degree that they can be written about, after all, and I’m starting to feel like the… Continue reading
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Imagining Truth
I talk to gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist, too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth. The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie.… Continue reading
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Defining History’s Future
For the past two years, as soon as June came around, I went into the AHA job ads database and access the data for the last year, the first step in writing the AHA’s annual report on academic hiring. For… Continue reading
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Will History Judge?
There’s a lot of outrage going around these days. With all the shouting heads on cable news and algorithmically encouraged doomscrolling on social media, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. Outrage sells—or at least it gets people… Continue reading
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The Unselfish Ruler
The story of the life of the first and only emperor of the United States, Joshua Abraham Norton, seems quintessentially American. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in England, Norton came to the United States around 1845 from South Africa… Continue reading
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Boo
Ihave an affinity for useless information. The less practical or applicable it is, the more it sticks in my brain. Can I remember almost every line from The Pirates of Penzance because I worked a show as lighting crew in seventh grade?… Continue reading
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Corvus corona
Plague—that’s something I know a bit about. I’ve studied the science of the human past under Michael McCormick, listened attentively to Monica H. Green’s lectures. I know that the Black Death gets all the attention but that the Plague of… Continue reading
MapperMundi 